2003 Archive - Back to current news

December 2003

Culturally Relevent Science in Wales

By Sue Yates

There were several reasons Vicki Lash and Sue Yates became involved in two science programs, Aurora Alive and ALISON: Alaska Lake Ice and Snow Observatory Network with the help from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. They were both looking for science content and curricula that could be adapted to local issues that would meet the interests, knowledge, and experiences of our students in Wales, Alaska. They recognized there was a gap between the textbooks and materials and what the diverse group of students might find meaningful. They also looked for a program that would provide flexibility and support of science inquiry. After checking out these programs they found two real winners.

Faye Ongtowasruk, a respected elder and grandmother, tells stories from Wales

The Aurora Alive program integrates multiple content in each unit. The multiple content allows opportunities to include culturally relevant activities. Unit 1: Aurora Legend was a perfect place to start with elders visiting the classroom and sharing stories with students. This gave Wale’s students an opportunity to write special invitation to elders and storytellers and later write thank you letters for participating in the class. The science content became much more meaningful after the students wrote a legend of their own. The best way to keep our science lessons culturally relevant is to allow elders and experts to share the local knowledge. The students find the local knowledge fits directly into the content and makes the experiences more meaningful.

The ALISON project will give upper level students a chance to actually go out in the field and collect data using modern tools. Students will meet standards in both science and math. This project became a culturally relevant activity when students and teacher worked with the local tribal government to obtain permission to do a study on a traditional lake. The teachers will be working with local experts and community members to provide transportation to the study site, get needed equipment such as chain saws and augers for the set up of the site.

Throughout this school year Vicki and Sue want to continue to invite elders in at every opportunity. They also include the community and local language experts to help them keep local language and stories alive.

Winton Weyapuk, a local language expert, retells local legends from Wales.

August 2003

By Cheryl Cooper

The 2003 ASC Summer Institute was held in Sitka from June 8-20^th. There were 20 participants from the districts of Anchorage, Bering Straits, Juneau, Lower Kuskokwim, Mat-Su, Northwest Arctic, North Slope, Sitka, SW Region, and Yupiit. They represented grades K-12. The instructors for the Institute were Cheryl Cooper, Diane McBee, and Sue Yates.

The focus for this year's Institute was life science using the rain forest. The content experts that presented were Matt Weaver from the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Jackie Schnurr, Assistant Professor of Ecology at Sheldon Jackson College. Matt guided the participants through several Project Learning Tree activities. Matt also had them explore some activities dealing with what happens to a forest during and after a fire which was very interesting and applicable for those teachers that teach in an area where fire is a threatÉalmost everywhere but SE Alaska! Jackie led a rain forest walk along the Indian River Trail for several hours and the participants were overwhelmed with the flora and fauna they encountered. The other content piece was a boat trip out into the Sitka Sound where we had Barbara Bingham as the naturalist to help us identify the birds and mammals we saw. A visit to the Medvejie Fish Hatchery and tour led by Jim Seeland completed our sunny day.

As always the participants were involved in several different aspects of learning more about science process skills. The discrepant events that were demonstrated daily by instructors or participants were always enlightening and many an "AHA" was heard around the classroom!

The participants and instructors all left the Institute tired and jazzed about science! If you are interested in attending the 2004 Summer Institute and your district is a member of the Alaska Science Consortium, check this web site for more information this coming winter. The location and dates will be posted after the October ASC Board meeting.

June 2003

By Susan Brown, 3rd grade teacher, Sitka, Alaska

Learning Process Skills with Toys

Third graders are familiar with the terms of observing, communicating, measuring and collecting data, but they’re not always sure of what the terms mean or how or when to use them. Activities with a toy cow helped clarify process skills for many of the students, and it was fun.

To begin, I had the students close their eyes. I told them I would say a word and they were to picture what that word meant, to see it in their minds. Then they were to draw a picture of it. I said, “dog.” Students began drawing. Predictably no two dogs were alike. Students were asked to explain why all pictures were different even though everyone heard the same word. Through discussion they came to realize no one could draw the same dog because a description was not given.

Holding up a bag concealing the cow I told the students I would place an object from the bag on the counter for them to observe. After watching and listening to the moving, mooing toy students were given 5 minutes to write a description. They were challenged with describing the object so accurately that anyone in another place would be able to recreate what they observed.

After a couple descriptions were shared the importance of clear, accurate, concise communication became apparent. The students then generated a list of what would make the description clearer and more precise. The list included measuring the length, width and weight of the cow, length of various parts such as tail, leg, and ear length, the way it walked, how many times it mooed and so on.

Each group was then given a different toy to work with. The following pictures show the various ways students chose to gather more precise information.

How many hops does the bunny take to cover 60 inches.	How many centimeters long is it from tail to nose?
How long will the clown cycle when wound tightly?	How many grams does it weigh?
How much does it weigh to a tenth of a gram?	How can we use the data collected to write a clearer description of our toy?
	How many different ways can we classify these toys?

Following the investigations students referred to the Process Skills chart explaining how they used various skills. The class noticed some of the skills had not been addressed. Immediately, suggestions were made as to how classification and predictions could be used with the toys. The class suggested various graphs to represent the data collected. One group even proposed a way to experiment with the toys.

I ended the lesson by teaching the song, “Did You Feed My Cow?” Who says science can only be integrated with math and writing?

May 2003 News
by Teresa Elmore, 3rd Grade Teacher, Tok School

Staying Warm During A Fire

How can we keep our school children warm during the cold Alaska winter days when fire drills are mandated or unexpected tragedies occur and everyone must be evacuated immediately?

That is a question that was posed by Troy Abel the 2nd grade teacher at Tok School in Tok, Alaska. Mr. Abel discussed it with Janis Smoke our high school science teacher and myself, Teresa Elmore the 3rd grade teacher. We came up with an idea that was then submitted to the Toyota TAPESTRY grant program. And guess what? We were winners!! Each year Toyota and the National Science Teachers Association award 50 US teachers $10,000 for excellence and innovation in science education at the NSTA National Convention in Philadelphia. They also award 20 teachers with $2,500 mini grants. Toyota TAPESTRY is looking for creative ways to make science come alive for children and there are three categories that you may apply for: environmental science, physical science, or applications that promote science literacy.

Mr. Abel accepted $10,000 dollars on March 27th of this year and thanks to Toyota, we will be able to explore our idea of the development of a “Cold Weather Evacuation Shelter”. It is our hope that the shelter will protect students whenever we are forced to evacuate without the benefit of time to get on proper outdoor clothing.

Our idea is to have the 2nd and 3rd graders experiment with different types of parachutes that can be made into quick portable shelters. We will be setting up experimental trials and collecting our data with the help of the high school science classes. When finished, we will share our findings with other schools in the region. Our project will begin in the fall of 2003.

Meantime, we would be interested in hearing about how your school handles cold weather evacuations. Please email me at telmore@tok.schoolaccess.net with your school’s evacuation protocol. Look for an update later in the fall.

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February 2003
By Jane Whaling, Southwest Region School District

Elbow Deep In Mudpies and Minerals

What could be more fun than mining a cookie, building a mousetrap, racing glaciers, or classifying jelly beans? These are some of the fun science activities included in the Alaska Minerals and Energy Resource Education Fund Resource Kit. The kit includes module's written for kindergartners through high school students. Topics covered in the modules are Geology, Ecology/Economy, Forestry, and Energy and the Environment. Each activity in the modules has been correlated with the Alaska State Standards for language and math.

Two awareness sessions were held in Anchorage during the Anchorage Association for the Education of Young Children's annual conference. In addition to gaining valuable information about the resource kit and winning cool door prizes, participants got to experience some activities from the the Primary Adaptation for K - 4 Classrooms titled Elbow Deep in Mudpies and Minerals. Many people left the sessions with the intent to request a resource kit.

Trainings can be provided in the form of credit courses, awareness sessions, or inservices to any district, given enough advanced warning. If you would like a training in your district, or your building contact: